The Anthropology Of Genocide - WNLibrary

126 essentializing difference
CONTINUATION OF THE KAISER WILHELM INSTITUT
FÜR ANTHROPOLOGIE AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF WAR
The Rockefeller Foundation discontinued funding of the KWI after war was declared
between the United States and Germany. That did not stop the Institute for
Anthropology from continuing its activities, however. Many were intensified.
Fischer continued as director until 1942, when he retired. According to internal
memos, he was past the retirement age and not in good health. Whatever other
reasons he may have had are not known. He was replaced by Verschuer, who was
often assisted in his work by Josef Mengele. Verschuer had been the “Doctor Father”
(mentor) of Mengele, and they worked well together when Mengele could
spare time from his SS duties. Mengele had gotten a doctorate in anthropology and
then a second doctorate in medicine. Like Verschuer, he was both a medical doctor
and an anthropologist. He was very interested in twin research and was able to
provide some “materials” to the institute from Auschwitz.
My assistant Dr. [ Josef ] Mengele (M.D., Ph.D.) has joined me in the branch of research.
He is presently employed as Hauptsturmführer and camp physician in the concentration
camp at Auschwitz. Anthropological investigations on the most diverse
racial groups of this concentration camp are carried out with permission of the SS
Reichsführer [Heinrich Himmler]; the blood samples are being sent to my laboratory
for analysis. 25
If only the investigations had been limited to blood samples. Unfortunately, there
is ample evidence that eyes and other human body parts were sent to the institute
for further study. Some of the twins survived to tell their stories:
Mengele had two types of research programs. One set of experiments dealt with genetics
and the other with germ warfare. In the germ experiments, Mengele would
inject one twin with a germ. Then, if and when the twin died, he would kill the other
twin to compare the organs at autopsy. (Annas and Grodin 1992)
The institute received a new assignment as Germany pushed into Poland and
the Soviet Union. Could they advise the government on the nature of ethnic groups
that would be found in the occupied lands? Another anthropological group was
already working on this problem and had its own modus operandi.
THE INSTITUT FÜR DEUTSCHE OSTARBEIT
(THE INSTITUTE FOR WORK IN THE EAST)
Anthropologists in Germany and Austria were well-respected participants in the
Nazi regime by the time Germany marched into Poland. They were counted on
for advice, assistance, and active participation in many of the tasks of the expanding